Redsand Canyon onero

germanicus directed @Diesel toward a pool of icewater caught in the empty bed of the oasis. perhaps in summer it would shift with warmer liquid.

but for now it was damnably cold. 

the imperator took a breath. "i will clean your wounds. and then you will submerge yourself here while i find something for you to eat." she had said two weeks.

he wanted to have her ready in one.

A full night spent in a den did wonders for her. Out in the unclaimed wilds she had no luck finding shelter from the frigid temperatures, and often had to wake up and keep moving, else risk freezing to death. Still, the place, this Canyon, was rather claustrophobic, rich with the presence of others. It put her on edge, somewhat. Her doggish brain was still on high alert in the middle of wolf county.

Her new boss got her up when her sleep was at its sweetest, but she grit her teeth and did neither bitch nor moan. Apparently, they needed to get started in fixing her sorry state.

She followed behind him. The mastiff thanked her kind's masters for breeding into her anatomy a wrinkled, drooping face which hid her subtler expressions. She was smirking, teethlessly, proud of her own dull wit. To think joining a pack of wolves would be so damn easy.

Once they came to the pool, Diesel sat down, a sigh of relief escaping her. Despite how she acted, the fever was still severely kicking her ass. 

"You uh, mentioned some queen?" The female tried to converse. She tussled her itchy ear with her hind leg. "You guys got royalty?"

She paused.

"Sir."

for continuity i have backdated this to like the day after diesel joined! pleaase lmk if this is not good and we can keep it present!

diesel did as she was bid. "akashingo is our ally. they have royalty. we do not. i am your imperator. you are my auxillary." germanicus watched her.

and then he leant forward to clean her wounds. brisk swipes of his tongue aimed to remove the grit and dried blood from the oozing bitemarks.

"the woman who attacked you, did she have white fur?"

fixed my initial reply to match the continuity

Imperator. Auxiliary. Whatever. He was her boss and she his teeth. That's how such things always were, when you stripped away the fancy names.

He leaned forward; purely on instinct, she leaned back, a growl catching in her throat. It took a controlled exhale to will her body into obedience.

Calm down, dumbass. Calm down.

She tilted her chin upwards to give the boss better access to her neck. Maybe a cultural clash was occurring, but to her this seemed really fucking intimate. A raspy half-chuckle got out of her.

Damn fella, at least get me diner first.

She resisted the urge to say it out loud.

"Uuuh." His curiosity and correct guess were strange, but she lacked the brains to put the pieces together. "Yeah, snow white. But she had all these big scars. Was big too. Herself."

germanicus heard her laugh and did not understand it.

his ears locked to her confirmation. he saw no reason why it should not be nyra. but for now the man said nothing of this. 

he stood to his paws. "wait here."

when he returned it was with a half-frozen frog. germanicus placed it at the edge of the pool. "winter rations." they had not hunted a large animal in some time. and keeping from gorging oneself honed muscles into hardness.

"if you begin to worsen, i may send you to akashingo."

Once he was done and distanced himself, Diesel relaxed. It didn't feel good, having someone's fangs so close to her jugular.

He told her to wait. Guessing it was time to soak, the mastiff went over to the pool and took a single lap, which had her head jerking back. "Fuck that's cold."

The female stepped into the pool, and as she submerged she eloquently muttered "Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck."

By the time her new boss returned, her teeth were chattering. It took a lot of self-control not to show how relieved she was to exit. She shook herself some distance away from the wolf.

Frog. Not something she had before, but the dog wasn't picky. As she devoured it, mouth full, she replied to the male.

"I won't get worsh. 'm tough." Tiny bones crunched under her teeth. "They bred ush like that."

"who is they?" the more that diesel spoke, the more that the eagle thought her a heathen. it offended the long-blooded sentiment of his family crest.

but then again, all were heathens who were not roman. and it was not his duty to convert them. it was not the way of the aloof gods worshipped in editum.

and it would not be mereo's choice. 

he watched her expectantly.

The dog paused in her chewing, looking up at the Boss. She swallowed what was in her mouth in one crunching gulp.

"... You know, humans? Two-legs? Can-openers?" Christ, was he ignorant or dense?

It didn't seem possible that he would look at her - with her flat, wrinkled face, drooping jowls and overall heavy build - and not realize she was the outcome of selective breeding spanning generations. Even though she had no respect for them, she had to admit the hairless fuckers had to be ancient and powerful enough to affect dogkind like so. 

To not even suspect their involvement in a bitch like she, well, the question was there again: Was he ignorant or dense?

germanicus looked at diesel. "i know wolves." they were all that mattered. it was their politics and wars which disrupted the natural world. he hoped that mereo would rectify some of this. 

to him, her jowls and slobbering were only an aberration of his own kind. and in the canyon it would not matter. not so long as she was able to fight. "your specialities. what are they?" she had seen battle. she knew her own strengths.

So, ignorant. She guessed as much. 

Fuckin' wolf hillbillies, man.

When he asked about her specialties, the female flexed her muscles. They had diminished from malnourishment and sickness, but their outlines could still be traced beneath her rich fawn coat.

"Brawlin'. It's been getting me outta trouble for months." And getting her in trouble just as much, but that wasn't something to admit in such critical company.

brawling. "there will be none of that here. you will have to get along on your own merits."

crushing others was for barbarians. the imperator would train none of those. "have you sparred before?" he inquired. "not to draw blood, for for the sake of skill."

when her healing was finished, he would have her face glaukos. the boy was already a gladiator.

Not that she expected anything else.

"Yessir." She muttered into her jowls, sucking in a string of saliva that tried to escape them. Wolves, they were killjoys, but the mastiff would play their game. To survive she'd eat her own tail. This wasn't too much.

"...Not really?" Came her reply after a moment spent eyeballing a nearby rock wall while her thoughts rummaged trough her pickled brain. "Not since I was a puppy. I mean, what's the need? Real fights teach you better." As much as her anatomy would allow it, the dog shrugged.

"the need is that brawling will not get you through a battle with skilled fighters."

he gestured to where the path away from the water narrowed and swept rightwise into obscurity. "suppose two warriors are coming up this trail."

germanicus turned and gestured to the high stone walls rearing around them. it was not a good place to be trapped. "what would you do, diesel?"

Now this turned into a pop quiz. One she neither studied nor prepared for.

Well, shit. 

"Uuuh." The dog stared with a slacked jaw at the path down which these imaginary enemies would advance, then all around at the walls which would in such a scenario trap her. Was there a trick to it? Because her battling habits were giving her a single answer.

"I'd back up into a corner." Was what she finally said. "Wait for them to make the first lunge, then attack." Her breed lacked mobility, but their powerful jaws were their best asset. To Diesel, that seemed a sound way to defend against a double attack.

germanicus gave a sharp shake of his head. "never back yourself into a corner on the same footing as your attackers. when you lunge for one, your entire flank will be unguarded to the other. i do not believe you will have many opponents your own size, auxillary. but if they are wolf then they will be faster."

maybe she had only fought dogs.

maybe she had fought these humans of which she spoke. 

whatever it was, her tactics would not do well in organized combat. diesel must adapt.

Not even a C for effort. Damn.

"Yeah, okay, if you say so." She nodded her big head, the lesson struggling to penetrate her thick skull. All she understood was that in Wolfville, there was no room for anything physically lesser than a prime fighter. In her current state, she was anything but.

"I'll, uh. I'll do better during spars. It's just the damn sickness not making me think right, 's all." 

Not that she truly planned to stick around. Diesel would keep her tail low in front of this new boss only for as long as it suited her. The moment better prospects showed themselves, she'll be gone like a fart in a hurricane.

yooo do you wanna keep going or should we wrap up?

we can fade and have another soon! <3

germanicus nodded. "rest. heal. meet the others. glaukos. kallik." she could at least do these things while she healed. he would see how she was gauged by the others.

"i will return to check on you."

but for now, germanicus would patrol. he gave her a smart nod and began his lope away.